XNA and C#

Yesterday I decided to have a look at working with XNA and C# to broaden my knowledge of other languages and Frameworks. After having a little dabble I realised the potential for quick cycle games in XNA. A lot, if not all the graphics code is wrapped up and kept away from you. I'm not too sure whether this is a good thing, although I have seen some samples online where people can access the graphics more directly.

Anyway I had a look online and found a small tutorial on:  http://www.xnadevelopment.com/ that showed how to add sprites and input from buttons and what not. The tutorial was directed toward beginner programmers which got a little frustrated but it allowed me to get a grip with the XNA framework. 

Below is a video of something I created in XNA, It's just a simple scrolling background and player movement. This type of thing can literally be made in no time at all:

The main reason for me taking such an interest in XNA and C# is that I was hoping to create a small level editor which could be used for placing my models in the Road to Eldorado game and other future games. That way I could Export it to XML in the exact format that is needed for importing straight into the game. I thought about it and I had seen a few examples of editors that used Windows Forms and XNA together. After searching the net I realised that this is not as easy as I first thought. Having both together seems like hard work and would require me to expand my knowledge of both Windows Forms and XNA largely before I could attempt this.

I think I will probably end up just making a level editor in C++ and just adapt the game to create, move and resize entities on the fly. I still am more than likely going to proceed in learning about XNA as it really interests me and the idea of being able to eventually play one of my games on xbox is pretty cool. 

Till next time :)